[cmroper]

This seems fairly simple but due to my background, I am used to seeing negative stresses as compressive. However, when I am using solidDisplacementFoam I get a negative stress where I would expect a positive one. Does anyone know if the negative values for sigma in solidDisplacementFoam are tensile or compressive?

[tas38]

Negative values of stress indicate a state of tension in solidDisplacementFoam. In the attached figure, solidDisplacementFoam has been used to simulate the NAFEMS-10 validation case. You can look here...

https://www.sharcnet.ca/Software/Aba...mk/default.htm

for the case setup in order to interpret the stress contour map.

[cmroper]

Thanks so much for your answer tas38. Do you know if there is a simple way to flip this data so that negative values are compression?

[tas38]

If it is just a matter of post-processing, the signs on the stresses can be changed within Paraview. You can use the 'calculator' filter and multiply the stresses by -1 (and create new/modified stresses) as needed.